Fishing Report
When is the best time to go fishing? Here in the north woods, every day is the best day. Our area contains a wide range of lakes with varied depths, shoreline structures, and a wide range of fish species. Seasoned anglers know success requires patience and a willingness to try different techniques. If you have a youngster in the group, they will most likely catch the biggest fish - it always happens. So, maybe no technique is a good strategy too. For those interested in learning about lake structure, water quality, or creel surveys, we encourage you to visit the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Lake Finder page. Area lakes will either be found in St. Louis or Lake County. Minnesota Fishing Regulations
July 14, 2025
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Walleye - Walleye reports this last week have some anglers finding walleyes sliding back up in water as shallow as 5-6 feet. Here, jigs tipped with half a crawler, leech, or paddle tails and pitched to the shorelines have been very effective for anglers. Clearly, not all walleyes are doing the same thing, especially this time of the year, so reports continue coming in of anglers finding walleyes with spinner rigs tipped with crawlers or leeches and worked off the edge of sunken islands, transition areas, points, and weedlines in that 10-15ft of water range. There have been a few reports of trolling crankbaits working, but that remains on the slow side yet. Perch, firetiger, and gold color baits have been the way to go. Smallmouth - Smallies continue to be the safe bet for many anglers as they continue to be aggressive after all of these fronts keep moving through the area. As usual, for this time of the year, top water fishing continues to be very good, before 9am, for smallies. Anglers should be looking to current areas, large boulder flats, and down trees for the most consistent action. Once the sun gets up, anglers should be adjusting their tactics to wacky worms, chatterbaits, square bills, and spinnerbaits to keep catching smallies. Reports of smallie catches out around sunken islands continue to grow. Oftentimes, these are some of the biggest smallies in a system. Panfish - Both crappies and sunnies are being found right in thick weedbeds right now. Jigs and twisters have been a safe bet here for both fish, but any kind of live bait definitely is working here, too. If weeds are nonexistent on your lake, look at downed trees. Not all downed trees are created equal, so some will hold fish while others hold nothing at all. White, pinks, and blues have been the best colors for panfish. Stream Trout - Rainbow trout were easy pickings for anglers trolling with small trolling spoons and/or small crankbaits over deep water. A good rule of thumb is that the brighter, the better. Trout can be anywhere in 5-40ft of water, so pay close attention to your depth finder. Anglers fishing from shore reported a little slower fishing than usual. Here, nightcrawlers, fished 5-10ft under a bobber, red/gold kastmaster spoon, or 2” white twisters were getting the job done. Lake Trout - Lake trout reports were few and far between this last week, but this isn’t to say anglers aren’t catching nice lake trout. Large trolling spoons fished behind downriggers in 30-50ft of water were very effective. Anglers fishing from canoes mainly have been aggressively vertically jigging with heavy 5-6” tubes, while drifting over deep water. Pike - Small pike continue to be a common catch for many anglers right now. Buzzbaits or large topwater baits fished early in the morning have been very exciting for early morning anglers. Like with the smallmouth, by 9am this bite cools off, so if you want to keep catching pike, you go subsurface with large spoons, spinnerbaits, and large minnow baits. Weedlines, mouths of shallow bays, and areas where water comes into the lake have been the best areas to fish. |